Congress White House Ballroom

Senate Republicans have departed Washington for the Memorial Day recess without voting on a roughly $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies. Voting on the bill was abruptly called off on Thursday. Republicans are debating whether to try and block a new $1.776 billion settlement fund to compensate Trump allies. They failed to reach a resolution after a tense meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.  Soon after Republican leaders announced that they would not vote on the immigration enforcement measure until they return from a Memorial Day recess, the week of June 1. That had been Trump's self-imposed deadline to pass the bill.

In pushing to prove his loyalty to President Donald Trump, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has agitated the same Republican lawmakers whose votes he may need to secure the permanent job. Blanche insists he’s not auditioning for the job of attorney general. But a succession of splashy, eyebrow-raising moves since he took the position on an acting basis last month has left no doubt about the impression he’s hoping to make on the president who appointed him. When he signed off on a nearly $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate Trump’s allies for alleged political prosecution, Blanche put himself at the center of a Republican firestorm.